Wasting a Workout

Several years ago, I was at a baby shower and was offered some cake and ice cream. When I declined, a friend of mine made a comment about how strong I was for resisting. I told her that I had done a really tough workout that morning and didn't want to waste the workout by eating all that sugar. She works out all the time too and (as she took her next bite of cake) said, "Wow, I've never thought of it like that. I work out so I can eat the dessert."

I've thought about that statement many times since. I probably started out in that mindset of you exercise so you can burn off all those tempting excess calories you want to eat (but know aren't good for you). As I've gotten older though (and hopefully a bit wiser), I can see that you don't take two steps forward just to even out those few steps back. You step forward so you can get where you want to go.

Since my move, I've had a harder time sticking with my healthy eating and my workouts every morning. I've finally got my exercise groove back and I'm bound and determined not to let my eating temptations (mainly bread) waste my workouts. I'm tired of pushing myself, getting all sweaty, feeling wonderful when I've finished exercising only to go week after week without any visible results. I've been much more mindful this past week about the efforts I've put forth with my workout when I head into the kitchen and decide what to eat. No more wasted workouts for me! I'll be back in a month to post my results. I know it will pay off.

Raw Recipe -- Flax Seed Crackers

I've been promising my friend Natalie for about a month now that I'd post my recipes for dehydrated crackers. I mainly make 3 different kinds. Flax seed crackers are mostly just that -- soaked flax seed. For the sprouted wheat crackers, I either make a savory flavor using sprouted wheat, soaked flax seeds (it turns gooey and acts like a glue for the cracker), and vegetables or I make a sweet version with the sprouted wheat, soaked flax and fruit (mostly apples, sometimes berries or peaches). I'll post the wheat crackers later on. (I'm short on time or I'd do them both now -- sorry!)

I've never tried making crackers one of the smaller circular dehydrators, but my friends who have haven't had any success. I used my Excalibur Dehydrator with 9 shelves and Teflex sheets. If you don't have the Teflex sheets, the cracker mix will go through the trays. So find an Excalibur to borrow if you don't have one yourself (or start saving up! They're worth the cost).

Here is the recipe:

Flax Seed Crackers

2 cups whole flax seeds (soaked in 2 c. water for at least few hours to overnight)
2 cloves garlic
juice from 1/2 lemon (ends up being about 2 T.)
2 T. Braggs Liquid Aminos

Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend together thoroughly.

Scoop out mixture with a spatula onto a Teflex sheet on the dehydrator screen. It's pretty gooey and difficult to spread at first, but you'll get used to it.

Dehydrate at about 105 degrees overnight or about 10-12 hours. The top layer of the cracker should look dry. Once it is, you turn the Teflex sheet over onto the dehydrator screen and peel off the Teflex sheet from the back. If it's sticking too much, then it needs to dry some more. If it peels off well, then you're fine. Put the tray back into the dehydrator at the same temperature until the top is dry -- another 6 or so hours. (I don't really time it -- I just check back every once in awhile).

These are really great with fresh salsa, hummus or pesto. Enjoy!

Observing Your Thoughts & Letting them Go

While doing yoga, the instructors often teach about being an observer of your thoughts. This means that you think away, but you don't always have to respond to those thoughts, act upon them, or even continue thinking them.

I'll talk more in depth about yoga in another post, but what I've learned regarding thoughts from yoga is that first of all, the thoughts are often just patterns of earlier thinking. Rehashing what's already be done (Steve Ross calls this "the dead past") or worrying about what may or not work out later on (he calls this "the imaginary future") just takes us away from the present moment -- from experiencing what is happening here and now.

Another lesson learned is that our thoughts often drive our current actions, but we can just observe them and send them away. This is particularly helpful while trying to break habits you don't want in your life anymore. So many experts on eating better talk about how we should ask ourselves "Am I hungry right now?" (or am I really bored, anxious, angry, whatever). I see the wisdom in that question, but what would always win in my mind was "No, but I want to eat it anyway." I'm not always an observer when I question myself. I tend to fight back.

Lately, however, I've been able to just sit and watch my thoughts with better results. Before the "But I really want this" drive takes over, I look at myself more like I'd look at my 7 year old son when he's up to no good and thinks he can get away with it. I tell myself "I see what's happening" and then compartmentalize that thought and let it go. It's really quite empowering.

Take this morning, for example. After 16 days of Christmas vacation, my children went back to school. There was some stress involved with getting up on time, fitting in my workouts, getting everyone else up and ready, hoping my youngest son wouldn't get in trouble (so far, no calls from the school -- it's a nice day when that happens). As I walked in the door after taking the youngest three to school, my initial thought (to the depths that it felt like a need) was to sit down and eat some bread. (I've been buying Trader Joe's wheat bread for our family and it's truly as good as homemade, which is nice for them, but dangerous for me. I gain weight easily eating bread). Anyway, eating bread this morning wasn't in my plan for the day (or the week, for that matter), but my thoughts were that this would help me assimilate all that went on this morning. It wasn't really a cause for celebratory eating, more of a release to just sit and eat bread. I quickly identified this thought as a pattern, a habit, not a true need. I wasn't even hungry. So I let that thought go and went on with my morning. Quite liberating!

I hope I'm not the only one who thinks this much about food. :) Off to tackle the 2nd 1/2 of my day. TTFN!

Almost the new year!

As the new year approaches, the store ads and magazines start showing weight loss products, fitness equipment, and healthy eating advice. I was just looking through Costco's magazine yesterday and although I enjoyed reading the health & fitness articles, I thought it quite a flip from all the sugar and unhealthful, fattening foods geared to Christmas they sold and promoted the last few months.

Usually I wait until after New Year's Day (even until the children are back in school) to get myself focused on my health goals I typically veer away from to some degree each Christmas season. (I am getting better each year, I think, but still don't adhere to my plan completely as I set out to do).

This year, however, I just can't wait that long. Once Christmas was over, I thought "I'm done! I can't eat this stuff anymore!" I'm ready to focus now, not later. So I have. It took me until Monday to get prepared for my eating plan, but I'm doing it. I'm actually doing it amidst everyone home from school, relatives in and out, etc. And instead of feeling like "but there's this party coming up" or "there's still some cookies in the cupboard," I'm fine with focusing now. My health is so tied to how I eat that I don't want to endure the pitfalls anymore. And even when I am fortunate enough to eat something unhealthy and not feel an immediate problem, I know of the long-run problems that can ensue. I'm not willing to take those risks. I've got to be smart about my health.

So what are your goals? I'd love to hear them. For me, I want to eat mostly raw with whole foods for my cooked. I've been dependent on too many high-sugar foods that health food stores carry, so I've told myself they're healthy, but they really aren't. Even if they're made with unrefined sugar or organic ingredients, they are addicting to me and aren't what my body needs. So that's an overall plan for me this 2010 -- to get away from those foods once and for all. Once I'm eating steadily that way, my workouts will improve. When I eat well, I get up at 5:00ish no problem, with vim and vigor and keep up with my fitness rotations just fine. When I don't eat as well, I sleep longer and don't leave enough time for powerful workouts or even meaningful yoga sessions. I miss spending 90 minutes doing yoga.

Off to sleep on this a bit more. I'll share more for the new year in a few days. TTFN!

Do what you'll keep doing

There's this phrase that keeps showing up on the Video Fitness forum whenever someone asks "Which workouts help you lose weight the fastest?" or "Which workouts have made the biggest changes in your body?" The answer inevitably comes up "the ones that you'll do." I know many people have had great results with P90X. I will never be one of them. I can't stomach Tony for more than a few minutes in those workouts. I've met him in person and he's really a great guy and certainly an expert in fitness. I could talk to him for hours, I'm sure. But he has this wacky humor and this competitive style that I can't handle for long in a workout. I've tried doing a P90X workout and later his P90X+, but neither appealed to me. So for ME, those workouts would not make a dent in how I looked because I'd never do them.

On the flip side, I've had great visible results with the Slim Series and the FIRM and I love what yoga does for me physically and mentally. Would that work for you? Maybe, if you liked them enough to do them. Some people say it's a body type thing (different bodies respond to workouts differently), but I think the biggest factor is if you'll do the workouts long enough to let them make a difference.

Now of course I relate most everything to eating, so I was thinking the same thing this morning about diets. Someone asked me just yesterday what to do about the weight she'd just gained. Someone else wrote a few weeks ago and asked how she could lose weight fast, like in less than a week. I gave them both answers that I've found to work for me, but realized today that although these are healthy approaches, they will not work for them if they don't stick with it.

So how do you find out what you'll stick with? You do have to experiment. You do have to try a different way of eating than you're doing right now if you want to lose weight. But what will you be able to stick with? I had a friend once tell me that she was doing certain workouts because she needed to lose weight, but she was not willing to change how she ate. She didn't lose much weight. She didn't keep off what she did lose.

You have to be willing to make changes that you will keep doing once you change. No going back. People don't like to hear that. They want to go back. They want to think once they reach their goal, the process can end and the results will stick. I used to be the master at that kind of thinking. I thought as soon as I lost weight or got rid of a health problem by changing my eating, I could abandon that regime and start eating like all the naturally thin and seemingly healthy people do. That never worked.

In looking for your ultimate way to eat, keep in mind that your body will run better on supreme fuel. If the quality of food and nutrient density is high, then your body will be more satisfied and able to stick with your new habits. I am amazed at how little I miss certain foods that I used to eat all the time and thought I would feel deprived without. There are certain foods that haunt me from time to time, but the longer I go without them and the more I learn to love more vegetables, the less room in my life I have for those foods.

Extreme diets don't work because you don't want to stay on them. I heard once when I first looked into eating a high raw food diet that this was the only diet people couldn't wait to get back on when they got off because they felt so good when they were on it. Whole foods taste better and better the more you eat them, too.

Now, I'm sure it sounds like after telling you to do what YOU'LL keep doing, that I'm telling you to do what I do and to eat like I eat. I sort of am. But what I really want to tell you is to find a plan (or eating style) that works for you (making menus or just winging it, planning out snacks before you leave the house or just always having water or a green smoothie with you when away, only eating every 4 hours or eating all day long) amidst the realm of eating a majority of whole foods. You will have a greater chance of sticking with your changes in eating if you get nutrient-dense foods in your body to help you feel as strong and sane as possible.

Making changes until they feel normal / The Seat Belt Analogy

The other day I was driving home from taking the children to school. I pulled into my driveway, unbuckled my seat belt, and was about to get out of the car. I saw that I'd forgotten to put a letter in the mailbox a few hundred yards back. I started the car again and drove back down toward the mailbox. As I headed down the hill (seeing wild turkeys running out of my way - - always a fun sight), I realized that I felt a little more free than usual, but not necessarily comfortably, like I was walking with my shoes untied. I'd forgotten to buckle my seat belt. I decided just to stay that way since I was just going down a private road. Nothing illegal about it, no cars around to run into. (I'm sure I could have run off into the ditch or hit a turkey, but I wasn't too worried). But it felt weird to not have my seat belt on. I could feel every bump in the road. I just wasn't feeling as secure as I usually do. I was used to being strapped in and now that I wasn't, it felt strange and uncomfortable. I kept evaluating this uncomfortable feeling because it wasn't always that way.

I thought back 20+ years ago when I was in college and the seatbelt laws went into effect in California. I was going to school in Utah, but would go home during the breaks to California and was aware of the seatbelt law. Not too many people wore seatbelts regularly back then. I'm not sure what my guideline was, but I know I didn't wear them all the time. It wasn't hard for me to remember to buckle up when I was in California, but I remember when I was back in Utah, that I'd feel kind of strange once I did buckle it into place. I felt a bit confined. There was even a mental aspect. When others were in the car and I buckled up (and they didn't), I wondered if they thought I was unnecessarily afraid of crashing. No one ever said anything, but I remember that thought crossing my mind several times. Did they think I was being overzealous? Did I really need to buckle up when I had ridden without a seatbelt for so many years? I was more comfortable without a seatbelt anyway. Why shouldn't I just ride without it?

As the years passed and seatbelt laws became the standard in every state, buckling up became as routine as putting the key in the ignition. It became the norm. I didn't have to think twice about doing it. I didn't mind it at all. I felt completely comfortable with it on.

As I pondered all this a few days ago, I thought about how I shifted from one habit to the other. How what once was normal became a thing of the past and what was once uncomfortable or undesirable became easy and the preferred way. It should be as simple to shift my thoughts about eating as it was for me to shift them with wearing my seatbelt. What is uncomfortable and strange to do at first may very well later become the norm and what I prefer. I've learned this with many eating habits (and with exercise too). I have fought many needs to change, then later realized I preferred the new way. I'm glad that I understand this concept -- that change can feel normal later on. I have more room to change and am glad to know that it's not as difficult to do as it sometimes seems. I've talked with many people who say, "But I don't like to . . . " or "I can't live without . . . " and I think that may be the case now, but we change. We really do. We have adapted over the years and centuries from eating whole foods to processed foods. We can adapt and change right back to enjoying and preferring whole foods if we just work at it for awhile. We have adapted from living physically demanding lives to living with motorized transportaion, indoor plumbing, and jobs that require us to sit all day instead of lift and move. We can teach our bodies to enjoy a physically active life once again.

As you set your goals for healthier living, don't thwart your progress by thinking you can't take a leap like that. Don't fear your ability to adapt to a healthier way of living. Think of the seatbelt analogy and how what was once so standard in so many lives later became obsolete and a new preference took its place. I'm amazed at this whenever I walk down the ice cream aisle and am no longer tempted. I used to have to forbid myself from even going in that aisle because I knew if I saw a sale sign on the Breyer's or a new Girl Scout flavor in the Dreyers, that I was a gonner. I couldn't depend on myself to stick with my goals. But now I can. I have other foods that I prefer and I'm just fine without it. Now to just get that way with Clif bar products. That's one aisle I truly need to keep myself out of for awhile. Best of health to all of you! -- TTFN!

Take advantage of the time change

Spring forward, fall back. I love falling back! Springing forward is okay too, but it's rough getting kids to bed on a school night when it's still light outside and they want to play. What's wonderful about falling back is -- well, the obvious, that first day of getting an extra hour. How cool is that? Who wouldn't love an extra hour to sleep, get ready for church, or just relax on a Sunday morning? I also find it absolutely wonderful each fall when my body is used to getting up at that same time, but now the clock reads an hour earlier. I have been bouncing out of bed at 5:15 for the past few days with absolute ease. This is the moment I've been waiting for since we've moved! I've had the hardest time getting myself excited about getting up early in our new house. I haven't quite figured out why, but it's been a struggle. I've played the resetting the alarm game far too many mornings. It's so nice to be waking up before my alarm sounds off once again and thinking "oh good!" when it finally does go off and I can get up to turn it off. (It's not like I can't get up before that, but for some reason, I just kind of hang out in my bed and think about life until I hear my alarm).

I've loved having ample time to work out. I feel like I'm getting that great start to my day -- no guilt for cutting my workout short because I slept in (or skipping it all together). It was tough fitting my workout in later on, even though I did manage to muster that up magic a few times. If you haven't been taking advantage of this wonderful time of year, hurry and do it before your body adjusts. If you live in Arizona or Hawaii, then you don't get this opportunity. But you could always pretend! I've done that before when preparing for trips to the east coast. I start adjusting my alarm in 15-30 minute increments to get closer to the time zone I'm about to travel to in order to make it not so tough when I get there. Maybe that's not pretending, but if you don't actually go on the trip, it would be, right? Speaking of sleep, it's feeling like it's closer to 11:00 than almost 10:00 p.m., so I'm heading off to bed. TTFN!